A New Beginning
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: AU. Visitors old and new arrive in Earth's solar system changing the fate of the Tau'ri forever.


_**A New Beginning**_

**Authors Notes: This is a one shot crossover story between Stargate and Robotech which I've recently gotten back into after having not paid much if any attention to anime for more than a decade. Stargate events are AU from the end of the SG-1 third season episode Fair Game.**

**The story was originally going to be part of a larger fic but after careful thought I've determined that in the original format the story was nonviable in the long term so I've abandoned it for now and will be giving my other works some much needed care and attention. My personal thanks to Cyclone, Drake the Archr and Ashen-Shugar for acting as such effective idea sounding boards for this fic.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around with, they remain the properties of their respective creators.**

**Summary: Visitors old and new arrive in Earth's solar system changing the fate of the Tau'ri forever.**

* * *

Colonel Jack O'Neill, retired, sighed softly to himself as he gazed through his telescope at the star studded blackness of the night sky. There was a time, not so long ago, that he would have been out there somewhere amongst those stars with his team kicking Jaffa and Goa'uld butts while trying to find and recover advanced technologies to protect the world from attack and enslavement by those posturing egomaniac's. But sadly that was no longer the case, the adventure in space was over at least for now until Earth's technology advanced enough to regain the stars on their own without having to use x-million year's old alien devices to travel between planets.

Without access to the gate anymore he just had to content himself with gazing at the stars through his trusty old 'scope and indulge in his old passion for amateur astronomy. Strangely it wasn't as comforting as it once was, especially now that he knew that a great many of those stars had planets orbiting them. Planets that were inhabited by countless numbers of fellow human beings who didn't – and never had – enjoyed the freedoms he and many other people on this planet took for granted. Humans who were slaves to the Goa'uld as the snakeheads ruled the galaxy with the same cruel naquada-clad fist they had for the last ten thousand years or so. Humans that he now couldn't help and that really bothered him, from talking to some of the others from what used to be the SGC he knew he wasn't alone in feeling that way. Hell he doubted even their political masters in the know about the gate felt happy about basically being forced to abandon god-only knew how many of the fellow men and women to slavery.

Sighing again Jack let his thoughts drifting back to what had happened six months ago now and the negotiations with representatives of the High Council of System Lords for Earth's inclusion in the Protected Planets Treaty between the Asgard Federation and the Goa'uld Empire. It had been a very tense affair with the very survival of the planet on the line as Jack wasn't about to kid himself that they could have repelled an attack like the one that the System Lords had been preparing to mount if the negotiations had failed, something that had come uncomfortably close to happening thanks to Nirrti's shenanigans nearly killing Cronus. In the end they'd thwarted her – and she'd been dragged off by Yu and Cronus for trial before the rest of the System Lords – and been allowed into the treaty. But the price had still been high.

Both Goa'uld had been adamant that they surrender the Stargates for inclusion in the treaty. Though they had modified the original demand for immediate surrender as a thank you for saving Cronus. Instead they'd given them two Earth weeks to decommission all their off-world facilities. It had led them bring back a lot of very valuable equipment that would have otherwise had to have been left behind, not to mention bring back a few tonnes of unrefined naquada and trinium for experimental purposes. Still in the end having to surrender the gate to Thor – for transport to the System Lords – had left a very foul taste in everyone's mouths. Though they had been able to console themselves somewhat that Earth was now safe from Goa'uld attack, unless of course the Goa'uld ever figured out that the Asgard were bluffing about being able to enforce the treaty, being busy as they were combating an enemy Thor had described as being even worse than the Goa'uld.

In the aftermath of the surrender of the gates things had changed massively for him and the rest of SG-1. The team had broken up – what was left of it as Teal'c had left with the gates being given a lift by Thor to a nearby world where the ex-First Prime could join up with the Tok'ra and continue the fight against the Goa'uld – with Daniel and Sam both going off to Area 51 and Jack himself returning to the retirement interrupted two years earlier. Jack had heard from General Hammond – also now retired – that that other SG teams had also been broken up, the scientists shipping off to Area 51 like Daniel and Sam and the rest being folded back into various Special Ops units around the country. As for the SGC the last thing Hammond had heard the facility was being completely mothballed as NORAD didn't need any extra space and the base wasn't useful for anything else really.

A sudden brilliant flash of light accompanied by an ethereal musical tone and a sudden marked increase in the air temperature jolted Jack out of his reminiscence a moment before his butt hit a hard metal floor. _What the blazes,_ he thought blinking to clear the after image and picking himself up off the floor before looking around to find he definitely wasn't on his rooftop anymore. Instead he was clearly aboard a starship with Earth visible through a viewport off to the right. And he had a very good idea just whose ship it was given the decoration visible in the dim – at least to human eyes – light had a distinct Norse look to it while being distinctly alien and technological at the same time.

He was on Thor's ship.

The sudden appearance of two more columns of light caught his attention a millisecond before with a crescendo of ethereal music two people he'd not seen in person in months – though they talked regularly on the phone – materialised on the ship. "Sam, Daniel," he said breaking out into a big grin at seeing his two former teammates again.

"Jack," came the response in stereo as the two former SG-1 team members spotted him and raced up. Daniel got their first and Jack didn't hesitate to pull his friend into an embrace before clapping him on the back. The moment he released him Daniel pulled back allowing Jack to come face to face with Sam Carter.

"Good to see you again sir," Sam started to say.

"Drop the sir Carter I'm not your CO anymore," Jack replied before grinning and pulling the brilliant blond scientist into the warm hug of two friends who hadn't seen each other in far too long. "It's good to see you to," he added as he pulled back.

"Where are we," Daniel asked looking around at the techno-Norse décor with great interest. "One moment I'm in my lab translating some of those tablets SG-3 brought back before the shutdown the next I'm here, wherever here is."

"Simple space-monkey this is Thor's ship," Jack replied grinning understanding why Daniel and Sam didn't immediately recognise their surroundings as neither of them had been aboard this ship the last time it was here.

"Greetings Colonel O'Neill, Doctor Jackson, Major Carter," Thor's oddly atonal voice said a moment before a transporter beam flashed again and left behind the small grey skinned alien sitting as normal in one of the strange sweeping throne-like chairs the Asgard seemed to find comfortable. "It is agreeable to see you all again," the Asgard commander finished as he materialised.

"Hey Thor," Jack replied smiling warmly at the 'Roswell Grey' who'd basically saved Earth by negotiating their entrance into the Protected Planets Treaty even if the price paid for that admittance had been an incredibly hefty one. "It's nice to see you to. So what's up? The snakeheads haven't figured out you're people are bluffing them have they?"

"No as far as I am aware the Goa'uld remain completely unaware that my peoples forces remain occupied in our home galaxy and are unable to properly enforce the treaty at this time," Thor answered. "No the reason I brought the three of you up here is you have a decision to make, one that will affect the future direction of your world."

"Why us," Sam asked.

"The Asgard High Council have read all your mission reports and psychological profiles," Thor explained, "it was a simple matter to retrieve copies of them from your worlds computer systems. They – and I – trust you to make the right decision. Just as you did when you agreed to the Goa'uld's conditions for inclusion in the Protected Planet's Treaty."

Daniel blinked. "Okay," he said not quite sure what to make of the confidence the Asgard was displaying in them. Surely it would have been better to leave any major decisions regarding the future development of Earth to someone infinitely more qualified that the members of what had been Earth's premier SG team, someone like the president. "So what do we need to decide upon," he asked hoping that the Asgard would let them consult the proper authorities later.

"As I said it is something that will affect the future direction and development of your world," Thor replied. "You are probably unaware of this but the Asgard have recently begun tracking all hyperspace activity within four parsec's of the world's currently under our protection."

"Including Earth," Sam said.

"Yes Major Carter," Thor confirmed, "the Asgard High Council deemed it an appropriate measure to implement in the aftermath of the attempted annexation of Cimmeria by the Goa'uld Heru'ur. As the newest of the protected worlds this measure was naturally applied to Earth as well. During our most recent scan of the space near your world we discovered this," Thor manipulated the controls on the arm of his chair making a holographic screen blink into existence showing what looked like a tunnel with the shape of a ship in it, "the vessel we detected is on a direct course to Earth. We estimate it will emerge from hyperspace within the next five Earth minutes. Our scans of the vessel show no crew on board or if there are they are no longer broadcasting life signs."

"You mean they're dead," Sam queried and got a subtle but noticeable nod in response. "So no one is piloting that ship."

"No the vessel is apparently functioning on automatic. The reason I am here is the Asgard High Council would like you to decide its fate," Thor explained. "When the vessel emerges from its form of hyperspace travel it will be on a course that will see it crash land on the surface of your world."

"We can't allow that if it hits a populated area," Sam started to say her voice trailing off in horror as being a scientist she knew full well the consequences of a very large object, travelling at high speed would be impacting Earth especially if it hit a populated area. Even if it didn't hit a populated area the environmental consequences of a large scale impact could be catastrophic.

"The Asgard agree and I am fully prepared to use the _Beliskner's_ weapons systems to destroy the vessel if that is your decision."

"But," Jack said clearly hearing the 'but' in the Asgard's odd – to human ears anyway – atonal voice.

"There is another option," Thor confirmed. "The vessels trajectory is such that it will come out of hyperspace just beyond the orbit of your planets moon. As with all Asgard ships the _Beliskner_ is equipped with gravitational force beam projectors it would be possible for us to use the projectors to alter its trajectory so that it enters orbit of the moon."

"Tractor beams! Cool," Jack exclaimed his inner trekkie coming to the fore momentarily, before he forced it – kicking and screaming – back into its mental box otherwise he would have started a happy dance right here and that would have been more than a little embarrassing. A glance at Carter though showed she was just itching to start asking Thor how the tractor beams worked, though the fact that the Asgard had them gave him an idea. "Thor could you not use them to manoeuvre the ship into planetary orbit? As that would make boarding it a lot easier as none of our current spacecraft are capable of reaching the moon."

"I am afraid not O'Neill," Thor replied, "our scans of the vessel indicate that it masses far too much for our tractor beams as you call them to tow the vessel in the manner required to execute your suggestion. Only specially designed search and rescue vessels have projectors powerful enough for such an action and we have none available at this time. Even if one was available their hyperspace speed is limited in comparison to the _Beliskner's_ it would not arrive in time to execute the manoeuvre you suggest."

"Oh," Jack muttered that sounded reasonable and made sense. Unfortunately it left them with a problem in that none of the space capable nations on Earth had the ability to reach an object in lunar orbit at this time, the days of the Saturn rockets used by the Apollo programme were long over. Not even their modern space shuttles could hope to manage such a feat now. It would take quite a bit of work and a lot of cooperation from the Russians and Europeans to build a craft capable of reaching the ship in a reasonable period of time and he had to ask himself would it really be such a bad thing having to work with the other space capable nations and groups to reach and explore the vessel? Though he hated politicians – especially that slimy bastard Kinsey – he wasn't completely ignorant of the realities of politics in their modern media fuelled world, anything that could further international cooperation would go down well with the voters especially as there was a presidential election due next year. A strange alien bleeping sound brought him out his thoughts and he looked at Thor expression inviting an explanation.

"The alien vessel has begun decelerating in preparation for hyperspace emergence," Thor explained. "It will drop into normal space momentarily. I need your decision now my friends. What do you wish me to do destroy the vessel or adjust its trajectory so it enters orbit of your world's moon?"

Jack glanced at Sam and Daniel his expression communicating more than words that he was all for diverting the vessel into lunar orbit. While it would take a lot of work and international cooperation – which they would probably get as a massive alien starship entering lunar orbit would on a clear night be visible to anyone with a high powered pair of binoculars not to mention anyone with a telescope and thus impossible to hide for very long – to reach the unknown ship it would be worth it in the end. Especially if it got them back into space and possibly gave them the power to fight off the System Lords especially if the snakeheads did eventually figure out that the Protected Planets Treaty was all a big bluff these days.

Jack wasn't surprised when he got concurring nods from both his former teammates. Like him they could see the benefits of diverting the alien ship into a lunar orbit. "Alright Thor," he said looking back at the Asgard. "Divert that ship into lunar orbit."

"As you wish O'Neill," Thor replied pleased by the decision. While the Goa'uld would not be pleased if they learned of the ships presence – a ship that the Asgard easily recognised having periodically crossed swords with its Tirolian makers numerous times over the last few millennia – and might complain there was nothing they could do about it. They couldn't send a ship to Earth to destroy the vessel without breaking the treaty, which they wouldn't dare to do as as far as the Goa'uld knew it would start a war with his people. A war the System Lords knew they wouldn't win as the Goa'uld genetic memory meant they all well remembered what had happened the last time their two species faced each other in open war.

Plus the treaty only forbade the Asgard artificially accelerating the development of a protected world with their own science and technology. It said nothing about interfering with a world's development if they got access to the science and technology of any other spacefaring civilisation, even one of the few that – like his own – were capable of intergalactic travel. It was a loophole in the treaty that the High Council had been well aware of which was why they had told him to make the offer to divert the ship into lunar orbit in the first place rather than simply ordering him to destroy it.

Switching on his chairs comm. unit he called the bridge. "Thor to Bridge as soon as the Tirolian ship comes out of hyperspace use the gravitational force beams to divert it into a stable orbit above Earth's moon," he ordered in his native tongue.

"Yes supreme commander," his first officer Ymir responded immediately. "The vessel is dropping into normal space now do you wish me to transfer observation telemetry to your current location?"

"Please do so."

"Yes supreme commander."

* * *

As Thor and Ymir spoke several thousand kilometres off the starboard side of the _Beliskner_ a tiny section of space warped and distorted as it was suddenly subjected to a tremendous stress from within. At the centre of the distortion the fabric of space-time parted under the tremendous forces being exerted upon the barrier between normal space and hyperspace. However instead of a massive vortex-like hyperspace window opening in the normal way only a small sphere of brilliant, coruscating light appeared.

The sphere rapidly expanded until it was several kilometres across before vanishing with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble, leaving behind the twelve hundred metre long shape of the mobile battle fortress that had once belonged to the renegade Tirolian Robotech Master Zor. Propelled by the inertia of the emergence from hyperspace – though the unique folding nature of Tirolian hyperspace drives meant the inertia imparted by hyperspace was considerably less than that imparted to ships with more conventional hyperspace drives – the ship glided forward at high speed on a vector that without intervention would have seen it impacting the Earth's surface somewhere in the southern hemisphere.

Intervention however came as a beam of gravitational force shot out from the underside of the _Beliskner_ and made contact with the side of Zor's ship. Immediately the Asgard cruiser began applying a very carefully calculated amount of force in a series of short pulses along the tractor beam invisibly linking the two ships together. For a moment nothing happened then slowly, ever so slowly Zor's ship began to turn being carefully shepherded around onto a new vector by the powerful technology of the Asgard.

For nearly three minutes the _Beliskner's_ tractor beam continued pulsing as it first brought the ship around into a vector that saw it entering lunar orbit then slowed its speed right down so the vessels orbit would be stable. The Asgard tractor beam disengaged as its work was done as Zor's ship settled gently into lunar orbit, moving around the airless crater strewn rock at a speed that would see it complete two revolutions for every twenty four hours that passed.

* * *

"The vessel has been secured in orbit of your worlds moon O'Neill," Thor said calmly to the older human male. "At its current velocity it will complete an orbit of the moon once every twelve of your hours."

"Thank you Thor," Jack replied gazing at the holographic display which showed an image of the massive alien spaceship now sitting in lunar orbit. It was strange looking, all blocky and angular with none of the grace of Asgard or even Goa'uld vessels. In fact it looked downright like something that would be built by them if they had the ability to build starships. "Whoa that thing looks almost like it was built by human hands."

"The vessel is Tirolian O'Neill," Thor answered, "they are a species that are very much driven by the adage form follows function at least when it comes to the design of spacecraft."

"Will these Tirolian's come to retrieve their ship Thor," Daniel asked worriedly.

"That is most unlikely Doctor Jackson," Thor replied, "at this time the Tirolians are engaged in a massive war with a species called the Invid. The war has been raging across the length and breadth of the galaxy your people refer to as Andromeda for the last hundred and twenty Earth years and shows little sign of ending anytime soon. It is most unlikely that the Tirolians or their warrior servants a genetically engineered species known as the Zentraedi will be able to spare any ships to search out and retrieve this vessel as they are only just holding off the forces of the Invid at this time."

"But there are no guarantees that they won't eventually come," Sam commented.

"Few things in life are ever truly guaranteed Major Carter," Thor answered sagely. "Though as I said it is most unlikely they will be able to spare any ships to search for one vessel due to the ongoing war between themselves and the Invid. To do so would risk compromising their defences and the Invid would be quick to exploit any such weakness. You need not overly concern yourselves with any of these groups for the time being though we will of course inform your people if the situation in Andromeda were to change."

Sam nodded in understanding though she knew their leaders would still worry about it. Which would only prompt them to learn as much from the ship as they could as quickly as they could just in case the ships original owners – or these Zentraedi servants of theirs – came to Sol to recover their missing property. Course first they would need to get to the ship as like Jack she was well aware that Earth currently didn't have any vehicles capable of reaching lunar orbit and docking with the Tirolian ship. Though it wouldn't be impossible to build one it would take quite a bit of time and certainly require a large amount of international cooperation to do just like the International Space Station was very much a joint operation between all the nations capable of spaceflight.

Plus they still had the Goa'uld to worry about. Though the Protected Planets Treaty theoretically protected them from Goa'uld attack now it wasn't a cast iron guarantee of safety for Earth given the Asgard Fleet was busy in its own galaxy fighting some nebulous enemy who was supposedly even worse than the Goa'uld. The snakes could learn the truth that the Asgard were bluffing at any time and if they did find out she knew from her memories of the Tok'ra Jolinar that the System Lords wouldn't hesitate to attack and enslave – or destroy – all the protected worlds. A fact that she knew had the president and the top brass at the Pentagon very worried – it was one of the reasons why they were continuing to work hard reverse engineering tech from the two half wrecked Death Gliders they'd recovered after the destruction of two of Apophis' motherships over Earth. Anything they eventually learned from this Tirolian vessel would probably go a very long way towards ensuring their peoples safety from any and all extra-terrestrial threats.

"So what now?" she asked breaking the silence that had fallen on the room, silence that was only broken by the soft swish of the air vents and the distant rumbling of whatever it was that powered the Asgard's mighty starships.

"Now I must return you to the surface of your world," Thor replied. "I suggest you speak with your leaders about what we have discussed here this day."

"We will Thor," Jack said. "Thank you for this."

"You are most welcome O'Neill," Thor answered manipulating his chair controls. "Until we meet again."

Without waiting for a response he activated the outbound transporter system sending the former SG-1 back to the places on the surface he'd taken them from in flashes of silver-white light. As the after image of the transports faded away he leaned back in his throne-like chair and considered what had just taken place. He was pleased that SG-1 had reacted in the fashion that they had, it proved that his and the High Council's faith in them was not misplaced. They and their world had great potential to be a great force for good in this galaxy in the same way their ancestors the Ancients had been before the Great Plague had killed most of them and scattered the survivors throughout the galaxies to slowly fade away or ascend.

He still worried though about the wisdom of this action, of allowing the Tirolian ship – which he recognised as being Zor's personal ship sent into space by the renegade Robotech Master after he'd had enough of his leaders actions, actions that had placed the Tirolians on their current course which had ultimately led them to their current war with the Invid – to make it this far. The vessel was a highly advanced warship after all armed with weapons fully capable of devastating a planet from orbit in minutes. He couldn't help but worry what such a young race would do with such power being gifted to them so easily as the last thing anyone wanted was a repeat performance of what happened when the Goa'uld got advanced technology to soon.

Which was why he hadn't actually dropped it into Earth orbit as on the orders of the High Council he hadn't told O'Neill the full truth about the power of the _Beliskner's_ gravitational force beams, they'd actually been fully capable of towing the battle fortress into any orbit they wanted as the beams were designed for towing disabled Asgard warships through hyperspace. The High Council was well aware that Earth was a deeply divided world as well as being one of the most densely populated planets in this entire galaxy.

It was their hope that moving Zor's ship into lunar orbit would force the people of Earth to put aside their juvenile differences so they could reach the ship and begin to learn from it. From there it wouldn't be that difficult to nudge them to begin working more for the greater good of them all. Which would only help the Asgard keep the promise they'd made to the last of the Ancients after the Fall of Atlantis to look out for their inheritors and guide them when they needed it so they didn't go down the dark path of the Goa'uld or the Tirolians and become the Fifth Great Race.

Emitting the Asgard equivalent of a sigh Thor prepared to return to the bridge as he still had a war to fight against the Replicators. Still he would make it a point to keep an eye on what O'Neill and the people of Earth did over the next few years. Whatever happened he was sure it was going to be interesting.

Very interesting.

The End

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**Authors Note: That's it for this one though I'll probably write a sequel at some point in the future if people ask nicely enough and my muse is willing to cooperate.**


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